had told her of the two men she had seen. The presence of a soldier
had given her confidence, and having delivered her message both women
left everything else to him. His experience or his soldier's instinct
told him what they were doing and also how to act. They were a raid
which had gotten around the body of the army and were striking for the
capital; and from their position, unless they could be delayed they
might surprise it. In the face of the emergency a sudden genius seemed
to illuminate the young man's mind. By the time he was dressed he was
ready with his plan--Did Vashti know where any of the conscript guard
stayed?

Yes, down the road at a certain place. Good; it was on the way. Then he
gave her his orders. She was to go to this place and rouse any one she
might find there and tell them to send a messenger to the city with all
speed to warn them, and were to be themselves if possible at a certain
point on the road by which the raiders were travelling, where a little
stream crossed it in a low place in a heavy piece of swampy woods. They
would find a barricade there and a small force might possibly keep them
back. Then she was to go on down and have the bridge, ten or twelve
miles below on the road between the forks burned, and if necessary was
to burn it herself; and it must be done by sunrise. But they were on
the other road, outside of the forks, the girl explained, to which Darby
only said, he knew that, but they would come back and try the bridge
road.

"And you burn the bridge if you have to do it with your own hand, you
hear--and now go," he said.

"Yes--I'll do it," said the girl obediently and turned to the door. The
next instant she turned back to him: he had his gun and was getting his
axe.

"And, Darby----?" she began falteringly, her heart in her eyes.

"Go," said the young soldier, pointing to the door, and she went just as
he took up his old rifle and stepped over to where his mother sat white
and dumb. As she turned at the edge of the clearing and looked back up
the path over the pine-bushes she saw him step out of the door with his
gun in one hand and his axe in the other.

An hour later Darby, with the fever still hot on him, was cutting
down trees in the darkness on the bank of a marshy little stream, and
throwing them into the water on top of one another across the road, in
a way to block it beyond a dozen axemen's work for several hours, and
Vashti was trudging through the darkness